If the momentous events that have rocked Chicago music in the last couple of weeks have taught us anything, it's that Orchestra Hall can be every bit as volatile a political hotbed as City Hall. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians needed a diversion from all the backstage maneuvering that followed the surprise announcement two weeks ago of Daniel Barenboim's departure. And so did the subscribers. To the rescue Thursday came Charles Dutoit, who over the last three seasons...

Wednesday night's "Afterwork Masterworks" concert, presenting two-thirds of this week's Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription program, offered listeners at Orchestra Hall something new and something old that followed different patterns equally disappointing. Guest conductor Charles Dutoit was on the podium, presiding over French showpieces from, respectively, the 21st and 19th centuries. Yet the content of one aspired to so much more than display and the performance of the other...

Chopin piano recital Martha Argerich, piano (EMI Classics) Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 Argerich, piano; Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Charles Dutoit, conductor (EMI Classics) Martha Argerich recorded her Chopin recital for EMI in 1965, but because of contractual complications the performances are only now being issued, as "The Legendary 1965 Recording." Perhaps they are not all as superlative as that designation suggests, yet there is some...

With the 100th birthday anniversary of Benjamin Britten less than a week away, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is turning this significant milestone into an extended salute to the greatest composer England produced in the last century. The CSO's centennial celebration got underway in style on Thursday night at Symphony Center with a deeply moving performance of Britten's masterpiece, the "War Requiem," by the orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus under Charles...

Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole; Vieuxtemps: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor Sarah Chang, violinist, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Philharmonia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit, conductor (EMI). Even in an age bursting with frighteningly gifted musical prodigies, violinist Sarah Chang, now a veteran performer at the ripe old age of 14, stands apart for her assured technical wizardry and an amazingly precocious interpretive maturity. In this pair of virtuosic French concertos, Chang's subtle bowing and nuanced...

Apart from the bicentennials of Wagner and Verdi, no major anniversary in classical music is getting wider play this season than the centennial of "The Rite of Spring," which received its notorious premiere in Paris on May 29, 1913. The reasons are clear. One hundred years after it touched off the most famous riot in music history, Igor Stravinsky's iconic masterpiece established the template for much of 20th century music, on into the 21st. The score remains...

Maurice Ravel: Complete Symphonic Works (Orchestra National de France; Eliahu Inbal, cond; Denon). There are several ways to approach Ravel's symphonic music, and Inbal's is a compelling one. Though his recordings don`t have the obvious sensuousness of those by Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, Inbal's Ravel is no less interesting. His approach is essentially dry and transparent, so that the most minute details of orchestration glitter forth. This is Ravel in a...

During the same season in which the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is making a big bicentenary splash on behalf of Richard Wagner, attention must be paid a couple of other composer anniversaries. Thursday night's subscription program, ably conducted by Charles Dutoit, reminded the audience of two worthy British honorees from the 20th century, Benjamin Britten and William Walton. The music world is readying a 21-gun salute to the Britten centenary next year. Observances on...

Some critics have observed that while Charles Dutoit's concerts are seldom, if ever, disappointing, few add up to truly extraordinary experiences either. Yet one had no hesitation in putting the concert he directed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Thursday night, concluding his two-week residency at Symphony Center, in the latter category. Of course any conductor fortunate enough to have Evgeny Kissin as soloist already has a conspicuous...

In this topsy-turvy season at the Chicago Symphony, the orchestra and audience both crave the kind of stability and continuity an old friend like Charles Dutoit can provide. The Swiss-born conductor has enjoyed an association with the CSO that goes back nearly 29 years, and familiarity, in this case, has bred respect all around. Dutoit's return to Orchestra Hall, where he launched a two-week residency on Thursday night, occasioned some terrific playing from the...

- It's more legal trouble for Busta Rhymes. The rapper was charged Thursday with driving with a suspended license after New York City police said they stopped him for running a red light. Rhymes, whose hits include "Dangerous," was taken into custody around 5:30 a.m. EST. Rhymes already is accused of assault in two cases and is considering a deal that would allow him to perform community service instead of jail time. - Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit, 70, has been named to the new post of chief conductor and...

Thursday night's performance of "The Damnation of Faust" under Charles Dutoit marked the first time in more than 19 years that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus had tackled Berlioz's masterpiece at Orchestra Hall. If Dutoit could not summon quite the sweeping intensity and volatile power that was Georg Solti's to command in this long and daunting "dramatic legend," he drew impressive results from his choral and orchestral multitudes. Dutoit matched weight of sound...

Amid an unusually busy period of podium shifts in the classical world, Mario Venzago has been named music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra after a four-year search for a successor to Raymond Leppard. His four-year contract begins immediately. Venzago, 54, is music director of the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland and artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony's summer festival. His appointment comes on the heels of two notable departures: Charles...

(The headline as published has been corrected in this text.) The Chicago Symphony Orchestra began its "Beyond the Score" presentations at Orchestra Hall on Sunday with an hourlong analysis of one of the most popular works in the repertory, Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures From an Exhibition." And as may have been suggested by the title's translation -- usually given as "Pictures at an Exhibition" -- the audiovisual treatment offered nice small surprises. Owing to a...

Berlioz: Les Troyens Soloists, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Charles Dutoit, conductor (London, 4-CD set). The first question the collector is going to ask of this set-the first recording of Berlioz's monumental opera "The Trojans" in 25 years-is whether its virtues recommend it over the pioneering recording conducted by Colin Davis on Philips. It's an unfair question, because each version has its attractions and belongs in the library of every lover of French opera.

JOHN VON RHEIN'S PICKS Anaphora: New music concert. 2 p.m. Sun.; $5. Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway; 773-878-5552. Chicago Folks Operetta: Now here's a real rarity. Leo Fall's charming, tuneful if obscure Viennese operetta, "The Girl in the Train" (1908), receives what in all probability is its Chicago premiere, courtesy of this local professional troupe. The show is sung in a new English translation, with Mark Bilyeu presiding at the piano and Ban Lasser directing. If you adore Lehar's "The Merry...

JOHN VON RHEIN'S PICKS Anaphora: New music concert. 2 p.m. Sun.; $5. Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway; 773-878-5552. Chicago Folks Operetta: Now here's a real rarity. Leo Fall's charming, tuneful if obscure Viennese operetta, "The Girl in the Train" (1908), receives what in all probability is its Chicago premiere, courtesy of this local professional troupe. The show is sung in a new English translation, with Mark Bilyeu presiding at the piano and Ban Lasser directing. If you adore Lehar's "The Merry...

It is a conundrum often faced by passionate music lovers. How does one proselytize on behalf of a noble obsession without dumbing down the subject for the sake of the uninitiated? Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "Beyond the Score" series has been an exemplar of musical outreach, moving past the eat-your-vegetables lectures that can leave a bitter aftertaste on the palate of would-be enthusiasts. Sunday the series continued with Gustav Holst's "The Planets," a work of grand cinematic scope and...